5 ways Andrew Scheer would make the climate crisis worse

The climate has never been a high priority for the Conservative Party in the past, and as the planet continues to heat up at unprecedented rates, Andrew Scheer’s proposed policies will only make the climate crisis more dire.

Here are all the ways Scheer and his party could worsen climate change in Canada if they were to win in 2019.

1) Making it free to pollute

A key tenet of Scheer’s climate plan is to getrid of the federal carbon tax and rebate policy the Liberals have implemented in four provinces. They also would eliminate the output-based pricing system that the Trudeau government has brought in for the largest, trade-exposed industries.

Scheer has said the Conservative Party will focus more on “voluntary” investments in renewables by big corporations, leaving them free to pollute. The Conservative leader has formally dismissed the work of Yale professor William Nordhaus, whose research shows a carbon tax to be an effective means of lowering emissions.

2) Scrapping clean fuel standard

Calling the Liberal plan a “secret fuel tax,” Scheer has recently announced he would get rid of the proposed clean fuel standard, which would demand that fuel companies produce cleaner products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 megatonnes a year by 2030.

The clean fuel standard would reduce emissions dramatically, ensuring the equivalent of taking seven million cars off the road every year.

3) Giving $5 billion to polluting corporations

Rather than forcing polluting corporations to pay penalties which are rebated to people, Scheer will eliminate the penalties and allow corporations to keep the money. That would amount to a transfer of more than $5 billion per year from Canadians to polluting corporations each year by 2023.

4) Greenlighting all fossil fuel development

Scheer has promised that if elected, he will work towards developing an “energy corridor” across the country to get more pipelines built and achieve Canadian oil independence by 2030. His party also wants to lift a proposed ban on oil tanker traffic along British Columbia’s north coast.

5) Bringing Big Oil lobbyists into government

After delivering the keynote address at a day-long strategy session with the leaders of four oil companies, conservative organizers and the president of Canada’s largest oil-patch lobby group, Scheer refused to apologize, claiming he was standing up for Canada’s oil and gas workers.